'Lo,
So, I don't know whether this is any good or whether I'll make it any longer or whatever... tell me what you think?
I don't own the Harry Potter world or the characters.
Enjoy...
Harry was sitting in his living room at number twelve Grimmald Place reading when a loud woosh coming from the kitchen started him. "Shit!" Harry swore as he spilt his coffee on his book and in his lap.
"Harry!" Came a familiar voice, "Harry, are you there?"
After a few muttered drying and cleaning spells Harry puts his coffee cup and his old copy of Quidditch Through the ages on the little table in front of him and walks to the kitchen where Luna's head is floating in the fireplace surrounded by green flames. Her long, blond hair is in about five plaits that make twirling patterns on the back of her head where she's pinned them out of her way. She has a stripe of green paint across her forehead and a circular smudge of blue on her left cheek.
"Hello, there, Harry." Luna says with bright eyes, "can I come through?"
"Sure," Harry says, "working on something new?" He smiles gesturing to the coloured splodges on her face.
"Yeah," Luna smiles and rubs a spot on her paint-free cheek and looks down at her paint covered denim work dungarees, "It's just a small one of some of Neville's plants."
Harry walks over to the kettle and gets two mugs out of the cupboard. Luna sits on the end of Harry's wooden kitchen table facing Harry and swings her legs back and forth. He passes her one of the cups now containing coffee and leans against the work top. "What brings you here today, then?"
"Well, I'm glad you asked," she says and sips her coffee. She then gets up starts and looking through Harry's cupboards, He raises an eyebrow but leaves her to it. "I booked me and Neville tickets for 'Le cirque des merveilles.' I thought it would be good for painting inspiration!" She says as she emerges from a cupboard with a packet of biscuits Harry didn't know he'd had. She sits back down on the table and dips a chocolate coated biscuit into her coffee. Harry expects her to continue but she says nothing.
"Oh, sounds good…. What's Le cirque des merveilles?" Harry asks.
"Le cirque des merveilles is a French wizards' circus. It means 'The circus of wonders'," She says pausing as she licks melted chocolate of the biscuit and dips it back into her cup. "But Nev's working late that night. Something about showing students his new, night blooming plants."
"Oh," is all Harry says.
"Yeah, so I was thinking maybe you would go with me." She says brightly.
"I'd love to!" He blurts without thinking.
He's never been to a circus, he's twenty-two and he has never been to the circus! Whenever the Dursleys would go he would be brushed off and sent to stay with Mrs Figg and her many cats.
Luna beamed, "Okay, I'll fire call you with the details soon, bye Harry!" She jumps of the table kisses Harry on the cheek and leaves before he could say anything else.
. . . . . . . .
"Brrr! It's so cold!" Luna pulls her short navy blue coat tighter and wraps her arms around herself.
"Let's go," Harry says. It really is very cold, Luna nods.
They quicken their pace so they're almost running to the ticket booth, Luna's pony tail swings behind her back. Because Luna had booked their tickets they can skip the queue, this, Harry is very happy about. They pass the long snake of people until they are standing in front of a brightly lit, red and blue ticket booth with a plump, rosy cheeked witch sitting inside. The witch smiles at Harry and Luna. "'Ello, loves. Do you 'ave your tickets?" She says.
"Urrrm, right here…" Luna rummages in her bright yellow hand bag and pulls out two scarlet red tickets and puts them on the surface in front of the witch. She examines them and smiles to them again.
"Lovely, can I 'ave your right 'and please." Asks the witch.
Luna stretches her arm out and rests it on the surface where she had put the tickets. The witch picks her wand up and taps Luna's wrist. A sparkling silver ribbon flows from the end and wraps around Luna's forearm.
She pulls away her arm and studies the ribbon, "Oooo! Your turn Harry!" She grabs his arm and puts it on the desk. As the witch magically wraps a shiny red ribbon around Harry's forearm it tickles and he squirms a bit. Once it's done Harry nods to her politely. "Come on, let's go and get some food!" Says Luna excitedly and takes Harry's hand, they walk away towards the huge big top opening.
Suddenly the witch calls out to them Harry and Luna stop and turn around: "Are you 'Arry Potter?" She says.
Harry can feel His cheeks reddening and he looks at the ground, his messy dark hair falling into his eyes. He nods and looks up, "yeah- yeah I am."
People in the queue turn to look at him and he leaves them and the smiling witch, him now pulling Luna towards the entrance.
Once they are inside the smell of popcorn and candy floss and other treats fill Harry's nostrils, he inhales deeply. The multi coloured lights illuminating the massive tent almost blind him and he has to blink a few times for his eyes to adjust. The buzz of excited voices fills his ears and he then notices he's lost Luna in the sea of people. His moment of awe is over and he sighs then chuckles to himself. It's like being out with a child; he stands on his tip toes and looks around. Finally he sees the back of her head over by the place where the food is being sold; typical Luna thinks and Harry and walks over to her.
Before Harry even lets Luna know he's there she turns around, "Harry, would you like popcorn or candy floss? Or there are sweet pretzels, or you can even buy some of these French sweet things." She says.
He opens his mouth to reply but doesn't get to saying anything as Luna shoves a bright pink cube into his mouth. It starts to jump about in Harry's mouth, it tastes sour and Harry winces. Suddenly he feels a fizzing in the back of his throat that's surprisingly nice. "Swallow it," Luna says eyes wide, Harry does as she says and the fizzing sinks down to his stomach, making him squirm a bit. Luna smiles.
"What was that?" He asks the sour taste lingering on his tongue.
"I don't know but they're weird aren't they," Luna wrinkles her nose, "I bought loads!" She holds up a red and white striped, paper bag full of jumping, pink, cubes.
"Okay… We should go find our seats." Harry says and Luna nods enthusiastically. Harry smiles at the way her hair bounces behind her head. Luna threads her arm through Harry's and starts making her way to their seats pulling Harry along.
They get to their seats which have a brilliant view of the arena. They are two rows from the front and right in the middle.
When Harry sits down and he's surprised, the chairs are all squishy, probably due to some sort of cushioning charm.
Suddenly the lights go down and they are left in darkness. Luna lets out an 'Ooooo' and Harry smiles.
Four large white lights flash on to reveal a tall wizard wearing a scarlet suit and shiny black shoes. He has a thin black moustache and glossy black hair. "Welcome!" He says flinging his long arms out, "Welcome to Le cirque des merveilles!"
. . . . . . . .
The show goes on for two hours before the interval. They weren't joking when they named it the circus of wonders! There has been flying acts, dancers, tight rope walkers, animal acts, acrobatics and other things that stunned Harry's mind.
The lights go up flooding the arena with light. "Woah! That was great wasn't it!" says Luna turning to Harry her silvery blue eyes wide.
Harry laughs. It was clear to him already that Luna had enjoyed the first half. The constant 'woo'-ing and 'ahhh'-ing coming from the woman beside him has probably damaged his hearing.
"It was brilliant." Harry agrees.
"I'll be back in a minuet." Luna says and gets up leaving Harry by himself.
Harry stays put looking around him. He wonders how many people he knows are there too and he just can't see them. He's squinting at the back of a two men's heads that look suspiciously like Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan when Luna comes back and sits beside him, she's now holding another red and white bag of sweets and wearing a pair of wire-rim glasses very much like his own, but this pair of glasses has a flashing, red lightning bolt attached to the top. Harry sighs and looks at Luna.
Luna smiles, "They're wonderful aren't they!"
"That's one word for them." Harry says, "How much did you pay for them?"
"Four Galleons." She replies.
"Four Galleons!" Harry repeats, "Luna!"
Luna just smiles at him.
Luna starts to rummage in her bag before pulling out the fancy camera Harry had bought her for her twentieth birthday. She puts a hovering charm on it and it floats in front of them.
"Say, 'Harry Potter'!" She says then smiles widely and the camera flashes. Luna takes it and looks at the picture, Harry can't see it at the angle Luna's holding the camera but she turns the camera off and says, "Brilliant!" before stuffing it back in her bag.
The lights go down and Luna is silent. Thank Merlin, Harry thinks.
The tall man walks back out into the middle of the arena and announces the next act. "We shall start the second half of the evening with a magnificent act. Please welcome… The Green Dragon!" There's a huge applause and everything goes quiet again as the man leaves and graceful music starts to play.
Nothing seems to be happening until he hears Luna's 'Oooo' and follows her gaze to the 'roof' above.
A silver hoop is being lowered into the middle of the arena. Sitting on it is a man. The only thing he's wearing is a pair of light green trousers that cling to him and a matching eye-mask. His body is slender and toned. His blond hair almost looks silver in the light.
The hoop is close enough to the floor now for him to slide of and stand and he does. He stands there for a few seconds and two white ribbons are lowered. The man grabs hold of them and Harry finally knows what he's going to do. Harry's never seen an aerial ribbon dancer before but he's been told they're amazing. Suddenly the man's in the air and he's twisting and wrapping himself in silk, holding himself in incredible positions, then he's upside-down, and then spinning gracefully and Merlin, how does he get his leg up there?!
Harry watches full of amazement. Woah.
When it ends Harry's speechless. Luna leans over to him and whispers to him, "That was amazing!" Before she joins in clapping and 'woo'-ing. Harry nods although she's no longer looking at him. That was bloody fantastic!
The man bends forward in a bow then walks off and the man in the scarlet suit is back.
The show goes on for another hour or so and full of marvellous acts but the whole time all Harry can think about is one act in particular, The Green Dragon.
So that's what I have so far, what do you think?
x x x